Resource Management

A variety of management programs enhance wildlife habitats on the refuge.

Fire Management

Prescribed fire is an important tool used for managing wildlife habitat. The refuge staff and partners conduct prescribed burns to enhance a variety of habitats and to control innvasive and exotic plants. The refuge has a variety of vegetation types which are either dependent upon fire, susceptible to fire, or spread fire.

Invasive Species Management

Invasive Plant ManagementThe refuge uses a variety of management techniques to control invasive and exotic plants including herbicides, mechanical controls with heavy equipment, prescribed fire, hand-pulling seedlings and vines, along with biological controls when available. Invasive exotic removal work is performed by refuge staff, independent contractors, volunteers, and partner groups.

Invasive Wildlife ManagementRefuge staff and volunteers conduct Cuban tree frog surveys and the Everglades Invasive Reptile, Amphibian, and Mammal Monitoring Program (EIRAMMP) surveys to monitor both native and non-native wildlife and their movements on the refuge. The public can always help with invasive species management by calling 1-888-IVE-GOT1 or by reporting sightings here.

Water Management

The Everglades ecosystem depends on the natural seasonal water patterns of South Florida which rely on rain patterns. Historically, the Everglades’ dry season occurs in the winter months whereas the rainy season takes place in the summer. However, the rain does not always fall in the same, predictable way each and every year. The amount of rain that falls influences water levels in the wetlands of the Everglades. The wetlands act like a sponge, absorbing heavy rains to help prevent flooding, and slowly releasing water during dry times to combat drought.

Wading birds can catch more prey more easily when water is shallow. But as the water recedes in the dry season, prey populations can become depleted. As water levels rise in the wet season, prey can be harder to catch, but the deeper water gives prey populations a chance to rebound.

The quality or cleanliness of the water is also important. Water with chemicals enters the Everglades from canals from our cities and from farm fields that produce our food crops. These chemicals, called nutrients, affect how fast or slow some of the plants in the refuge will grow. Too many nutrients can cause non-native plants to grow and crowd out the native ones. Even if a plant is “native” or belongs in the system, excessive amounts of these nutrients can make certain plants grow much too fast which would consequently disrupt the balance of the ecosystem.

Tiny organisms called periphyton are the lowest level of the food chain here in the refuge. Periphyton is a spongy looking mat of algae and bacteria. Fish and invertebrates, like crayfish and apple snails, eat the periphyton. They, in turn, become food for all the reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals that live here. The kind of periphyton found in the sloughs and open water of our refuge is not found anywhere else in the entire Everglades ecosystem.The quantity and quality of the water in our refuge affect these periphyton and all the animals that depend on them.